Tessa Riley
Tessa Riley is the biological daughter of Margot Bishop and Benjamin Jones. She was raised by the Rileys after being sold to them as a newborn. History Birth and Being Sold After Margot gave birth, she gave Tessa over to her mother to deal with her. Sybil then sold her to the Riley family of Sheffield, who raised her poorly. ("The Bad Girl") Getting Expelled and Running Away When Tessa was only 14, she threatened to blow up her school. This resulted in her getting expelled. She then ran away and later somehow came in contact with and started a sexual relationship with Felix McCall. ("The Bad Girl") Putting a Hit on Margot Tessa hired The Hammer to kill Margot. ("The Hammer") When he was unsuccessful, Margot hired him to protect her instead. They used The Hammer's help to figure out who had hired him. ("The Dining Hall") Once they had a picture from the bank security, they used it to figure out where she was staying. They found her hotel and then entered her room, where they found a wall dedicated to Margot, including all of her current and past associates. When Tessa came back to her room and saw them, she fled. Valerie chased her, but she managed to get away. They took her wall down and recreated it exactly at AVI. Alice noticed a picture of a church and Danny remembered Margot and Ben talking about a church. He figured out that it was the Firm's safe house. Margot told them it's where they stored money and weapon, but it had 24-hour security. They knew that's where the woman would be headed. They set a trap to catch the woman. When they confronted her in the vault at the church, she called Margot mummy. ("The Family Way") After bringing her back to AVI, Alice and Margot questioned Tessa about her motive and her history. They learned she'd been sold to the Riley family and had a rough upbringing with them. When she learned the truth about where she came from, she did some digging and then started researching Margot. Margot pulled a few hairs out of her head to run a DNA test while the others worked to confirm other parts of her story. Danny called her parents and learned that she'd been expelled from school for threatening to blow it up and then had run away. Tessa's phone chimed with a text message saying it was time for phase two. They tracked the phone to Felix McCall and went to his address, where the door was wired with explosives. When Margot learned he'd been near Sybil's law firm, she figured that Sybil was also a target and was vulnerable because she was being extradited. Danny and Margot arrived just as Felix killed the to marshals and tried to kill Sybil. Sybil shut herself in the van as Danny tackled Felix and bound his wrists. Margot then drove the van away. The DNA test revealed that Margot was her mother, which Margot already knew. Margot talked to Tessa about how long it had taken her to plan to kill Margo and Sybil. She offered to tell Tessa why her plan had failed, but Tessa knew she'd underestimated her target. Margot found herself proud for having not birthed an idiot. She then called Ben to introduce him to Tessa. ("The Bad Girl") Sybil's Attempted Takeover Unable to keep herself from meddling in the firm, when Alfie told Margot there were pirates stealing their shipments in the Gulf, Sybil suggested that Margot go handle it personally, but Margot decided to send Fernando, an enforcer, instead. Soon after, Sybil showed Margot a picture of Fernando's head. He'd been beheaded by the pirates. Margot decided to go tend to the problem personally after all. Once she was gone, Sybil sat down with Tessa and asked if there was anything she wanted to know. Tessa asked if there were really pirates in the gulf. She knew Sybil had faked that to get Margot out of the way. Sybil revealed her plan to take back control of the Firm. Just then, Margot came in and Sybil realized that Margot and Tessa had worked together to discover Sybil's plan. Margot then told Sybil to leave, that she was no longer welcome there. ("The Hard Drive") Planting Bugs Tessa and Margot planned for Tessa to attend a birthday party to sway the Mangels' crew, unhappy with Raymond Taggart, their new leader, to change loyalties to the Firm. The party was for Raymond's daughter Arabella. Tessa was interrupted while planting bugs by Ben, who came to take her home. Before they could leave, they went to plant the rest of the bugs. However, Tessa was caught by Raymond. He demanded $10 million from Margot in exchange for Tessa and Ben's lives. Margot had a car delivered to their house and said the money was in the trunk. She was actually in the trunk and shot the man who opened it. She then made her way into the house and shot the man guarding Tessa and Ben. They then planted seeds in the minds of the Mangels crew to get them to sway their loyalties to the Firm. When Raymond promised his revenge, Ben broke his wrist and threatened to do worse if he came after Tessa. ("The Birthday Party") Working with AVI When Margot had business to attend to and didn't want to take Tessa along, she dropped Tessa off at AVI for the day. Alice and Valerie put her to work on their current case, investigating an angel investor for Gretchen Adams. Tessa learned that Charles Bergman, the investor, was running sweatshops. They told Gretchen, who was devastated. She didn't have the money to take the next step to launch her business, so Ethan stepped in and gave her the money himself, making Alice and Tessa suspicious. The next morning, Alice was surprised to find Tessa back in the office. She learned that Gretchen's designs were actually stolen from other fashion designers. They looked into her business and found that the employees were real, but all the packages they were shipping went to the same place. The owner was Joel Hanson. They learned he was the angel investor. Charles Bergman was real, but not the same guy. Joel Hanson was really Gretchen's husband. Alice took Ethan to their house to show him Gretchen and Joel together, so there'd be no doubt what was happening. ("The Knock-Off") Drug Theft Tessa helped Margot steal a shipment of drugs from The Mockingbird and hide them in order to draw him out to make a deal with him. ("The Cleaner") Kidnapping After Felicity shot both the guards outside her hotel room and Sophie Novak, she told Tessa to come with her. ("The Cleaner") Felicity called and set up a meeting with Margot, Rhys, and Ben. When they arrived, they learned from Alice that it was a setup and Tessa was working with Felicity all along. She had the three of them taken back to Felicity's room. Felicity wanted to set it up to look like Margot and Rhys had killed each other and Ben was caught in the crossfire, but when she went to shoot Rhys, she found that her gun was out of bullets. Tessa had betrayed her. They tied up Felicity's guards and Margot tazed Felicity. While she was unconscious, Tessa and Margot fled, knowing the FBI was on their way. From Alice's house, Margot called Danny to get a jet so they could escape together. He was able to get them use of Ethan's jet and airport. Margot wanted Danny to go with them, but he said he needed to stay with Alice while Ben went with Margot and Tessa. ("The Mockingbird") Relationships Romantic She had a sexual relationship with Felix McCall. When told that he was taking advantage of her, Tessa stated that maybe she was taking advantage of him. ("The Bad Girl") Familial Margot Bishop Margot is her biological mother. ("The Family Way") Tessa seems to have a deep resentment of her mother as Tessa tried killing her several times. Margot is shown to have maternal instincts about Tessa to the extent that upon realizing that Felix McCall and Tessa had a sexual relationship, she wanted to castrate him before killing him. ("The Bad Girl") Benjamin Jones Ben is very protective over Tessa and wants to set a positive example for her as he was vehemently against Margot using Tessa to plant bugs at Raymond Taggert's house. Tessa was touched that Ben cared about her, despite not listening to him. Later, Ben broke Raymond's wrist for threatening Tessa's life and threatened to do more if he ever threatened her again. ("The Birthday Party") Rhys Griffiths Despite not yet meeting her uncle Rhys, Tessa seems eager to meet him, and amused by his wily ways when she learned her parents had met because Rhys had left them stranded while he went on a three day bender with a couple of prostitutes. ("The Birthday Party") Suzanne and Steven Riley She was purchased by the Riley family shortly after birth and raised by them, though they always treated her poorly. When she ran away, they didn't look for her and when they learned where she was, they told Danny he could keep her. ("The Bad Girl") Notes and Trivia *She paid The Hammer $1 million to kill Margot. *She weighed 9 lbs., 2 oz. at birth. ("The Bad Girl") *She was 15 when she met Margot and Ben. ("The Bad Girl") Gallery 2x04TessaRiley.png|The Family Way 2x05TessaRiley.png|The Bad Girl 2x06TessaRiley.png|The Hard Drive 2x07TessaRiley.png|The Birthday Party Appearances Category:Characters Category:Season Two Characters Category:Con Artists